The death of an 11-week-old boy in a squalid home could have been prevented if the Department for Child Protection had acted on multiple reports that he and his siblings were at risk, the SA coroner has found.
Delivering findings on the death of the infant known under the pseudonym "Caleb Evans" in 2018, State Coroner David Whittle said the cause of his death was "'unascertained, in an unsafe sleeping environment on a background of respiratory tract infection".Convicted murderer Greg Lynn's full police interview releasedCaleb's mother "Angela Evans" was 14 when she became pregnant with her first child "Dawn", who was born in 2015.
"There were opportunities for DCP to have intervened in a manner which would have prevented baby Caleb from living and sleeping in the environment he was in," Whittle found. Police found faeces on the floors, rotten food in the cockroach-infested pantry, baby bottles containing putrid liquid, and the smell of urine, faeces and rotting food permeated the house.The notifier said the family was living in squalor. It was "closed no action" by DCP on March 19, 2018, due to a lack of capacity to allocate the case.
"It is an inescapable fact that the inability of DCP to properly staff the Port Pirie office for an extended duration of time had dire consequences for baby Caleb," Whittle found.
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